The assignment (from Sara this month): To make a toast!
The only rules: The toast has to begin and end with the same two words.
I’ve made toasts. At both weddings and funerals. At the occasional event or gala. Toasts are something writers are sometimes asked to make and something humans are sometimes moved to offer up.
So what’s the problem? I ran out of time. April was National Poetry Month so I was fixated on haiku. And then upon my own work and submissions. And then on my students’ work. My daughter’s exams. My other daughter’s dive meet. You get the idea. And suddenly here we are on the first Friday of the month.
Time to make a toast, I think.
About time, I think. And why not, I think, write it in Fibonacci style, in which syllables tick out like moments upon a page?Yes! I think.
See, just a couple of days ago, I read this beautiful article about the intersection of math and poetry. Add time to that equation and we’ve got one big swirling ball of universal magic! Right? Well, I mean, I have no idea if anything magical actually ended up on the page but who cares because it was fun! So, here goes. A toast!
A Toast to Time in Fibonacci Sequence
A
toast
to time
ticking by
perishable time
racing like heart palpitations
rushing past this daughter’s drawing of a yellow sun.
A
toast
to time
or rather
an apology
because it is me ticking by,
rushing past this drawing, past this perfect yellow sun.
A
toast
to time
a promise
a promise to stop
blaming, ticking, rushing right past
my daughter drawing, this yellow sun, the perfect kiss.
A
toast
to time
generous
both spacious and full
ready at a moment’s notice
to spread out like waxy rays upon a blank white page.
A
toast
to time
both promise
and apology
both opening kitchen curtains
and also doing nothing but this, making a toast.
Go read my pal’s poem-toasts here:
Tricia
Tanita
Sara
Sara, Laura and Andi are off this month.
But for more poetry goodness, here’s Poetry Friday! Enjoy!
Oh, thanks for that article!
And, I love that sun, and thanks, too, for the reminder that sometimes, we have to allow (force?) ourselves to slow and enjoy – a timely reminder, while time ticks past…
That’s you ticking!!
I read your poem before reading your explanation. Yes, I’m backwards. As I read, I thought about how the words look on the page, as though they’re running, as though time gets away from us, which I think is a theme in your poem. The poem is visually interesting to me, but the ideas resonate as well. Time does move quickly, and we’re always subtracting time rather than adding it.
Oh, good. I’m so glad it LOOKED like what it is…
Thanks!
I posted that article last week and keep coming back to it. I love it. And I love that it inspired you to use a mathematical form for your poem. I’m also amazed that we chose the same two words to begin! And I really love your varied musings on time.
Yes, I feel like that my perception of math may actually shift simply because of that article! If so, a major feat has been accomplished.
Oh, my. I can actually hear you giving this as a toast, in your clear and lovely voice…and suddenly everyone would be teary-eyed, and then filled with joy, and then we’d all rise to seize the day. I love how you’ve used ALL the pieces here—-form and image and sound to make us slow down and feel time. Brava.
Oh, thank you. I DID read it out loud several times (because I can’t work any other way). 🙂
I could feel and picture your poem spreading out and slowing down while reading the fourth stanza–and that “blank white page” held this moment together. Thanks for capturing a bit of time for us to hold Liz!
Perfection.